[f. UNSTABLE a.] The condition of being unstable; instability: a. Of persons, the mind, etc.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Sel. Wks., II. 58. Medling of freris cloþis telliþ unstablenesse [in virtue] of þes ordris.
1387. Trevisa, Higden, II. 175. Þe vnstabilnesse of þouȝtes schal be bytokened by many manere dyuersite of cloþinge.
c. 1425. Eng. Conq. Irel., 136. Thegh thay, throgh kynd falsnesse & vnstablenesse that yn ham ys, lytyl tel of othes.
1539. Elyot, Cast. Helthe, 75. Unstablenesse of wytte and slipper remembraunce.
1590. Greenwood, Answ. Gifford, 13. Your vnstablenes in denying and affirming with one breath.
1646. P. Bulkeley, Gospel Covt., v. 368. By reason of our unstablenesse of spirit, we are apt to make many a breach.
1676. Hale, Contempl., II. 49. Unstableness, Vanity, Love of Pleasures, Easiness to be corrupted in Youth.
1815. W. H. Ireland, Scribbleomania, 124. His natural unstableness debars him from adopting any fixed mode of action.
b. Of conditions, life, etc.
c. 1340. Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 353. Þe unstabelnes of þis werld.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., II. pr. iv. (1868), 43. Þe vnstablenesse of fortune.
c. 1430. Lydg., Compl. Bl. Knt., 457. Thy stormy wilful variaunce I-meynt with chaunge and gret vnstablenesse.
c. 1440. Gesta Rom., lxxxix. 411. A woman … that sawe … the synnes, and the vnstablenesse, that was in the worlde.
a. 1589. Palfreyman, Baldwin’s Mor. Philos. (1600), 52. O world thou hast so many countenaunces in thy vanitie, that thou leadest all wandering in vnstablenesse.
1601. Sir W. Cornwallis, Ess., II. xxxvi. The frailty and vnstablenes of wealth.
1670. in Somers, Tracts, I. 27. To shew unto those insolent Commanders of the Army, the Unstableness of their Condition.
1807. G. Chalmers, Caledonia, I. III. vii. 421. A weaker prince would have lost his crown, considering its unstableness.
